Weekend of Fights

This past Friday night, I went down to the UIC Pavilion to watch a series of professional fights presented by 8 Count Productions.  Most were there to see hometown favorite Donovan "Da Bom" George take on Osumanu Adama in a super welterweight  match.  George's fight was televised live on Showtime's "ShowBox: The Next Generation".  It was a tough match.  Adama put tons of pressure on George, who appeared to not know how to approach his opponent early on.  No matter what shots George put out there, Adama kept advancing and backing George up.  Evenutally, George's firepower returned, and he took it to Adama, especially during the last round.  George won an unanimous decision.

Too bad a lot of people didn't stick around for the last fight of the evening.  It was an exercise in technical skill between Marcus "Too Much" Johnson and Derek Edwards.  Nothing flashy, just two guys measuring each other up and thinking about how and when they were going to deal out punches.

Another crowd pleasing fight was the fourth one.  Andrzej Fonfara from Poland went up against Roger Cantrell for the WBC Youth World Light Heavyweight Championship.  Fonfara lit up Cantrell with a lot of jabs to the body and the head.  After Fonfara knocked Cantrell against the ropes and down to the canvas one minute and one second into the fourth round, the referee stopped the contest.

Antonio Tarver joined Nick Charles and Steve Farhood at the commentator's table.  MMA star Darren Aronosky was also in attendance.

Last night was the Mayweather-Mosley fight.  I saw that at the Webster Place Theater.  After dealing with ticket takers who acted as if they didn't know the superfight was taking place, and bored looking concession stand staff, I settled into theater number seven to watch the spectacle.  There were a few of us in the audience who were pulling for Mosley.  A big cheer went up when he busted Mayweather in the face with a right.  "Money" teetered then got his balance back.  Unfortunately, Mosley would never get the chance to embarrass Mayweather again. 

The HBO commentators rightly said that Mosley looked like he was sleep walking.  Looking worn and breathing hard, "Sugar" plodded around the ring, and Mayweather did his usual play it safe defense routine.  Mosley's trainer, Naazim Richardson, sounded like he was going to stop the fight if Mosley didn't get some life into himself.  Roger Mayweather, over in the other corner, was cool as he called Mosley the MF word and encouraged his nephew to stay on course.  Mosley needed to knock Mayweather out, but like Richardson pointed out, Mosley kept looking for a perfect opening to do so.  It never came.

If it wasn't enough that some fans were disappointed -- and bored -- about another Mayweather victory, the champion once again declared that Pacquiao would never get a match unless bood tests were done.  I don't get this.  Mayweather never required that out of anyone before Pacquiao.  I suppose he had to demand that Mosley take the tests because of Mosley's admitted steroid use, and the fact that he had made a big deal of Pacquiao having to agree to testing. 

Before I got my tickets, I overheard a yuppy-like woman telling her two trendy friends after seeing a poster for the fight, "I don't care to see that."  I got a bit offended at her tone.  She was a stick who needed to eat a few steak sandwiches and some cake so that the wind wouldn't blow her away.  Probably couldn't fight her way out of a paper bag in a dark room.  Good thing that she got out of the way so the true fight fans could get through.

A Short Woman's Well Placed Shot

Joe grinned, "You had him up against the ropes!"  Alan and I sparred for two rounds.  I caught him a couple of times with a right, but I didn't realize how potent one of them was.  "You got me good that one time," Alan would say later on.    Alan usually leaves his left jaw open, and I have gotten him there a few times when I've sparred with him.  I guess I put in a real hard shot that time.  Alan and I ended up sparring because Earleatha decided not to do so.  "I'm taking a break," she said. 

Of course, he got in a good one, too, a jab that caught me in the mouth.  Mouthpieces are good things, you know.  "I just flicked it out there.  It wasn't hard," he said after it was all over with.  "Oh, yes it was," I laughed.  It slowed me down for a moment. 

Larry, a new guy, came in and sparred with Victor.  Alan stopped it when Larry got tired and was not returning Victor's relentless punches.  Victor had pinned Larry up against the ropes. 

Neither Carlos nor Jamil was in last night.  I remembered Carlos saying he had to work the late shift at his job this week  I'm not sure what happened with Jamil.  Demond, Patrick, Toya, Stacy, Cynthia. . . .all no shows.  Neville came in, and Alan didn't recognize him at first.  "Yes, he's signed up.  He just hasn't been in here for awhile," I told Alan. 

I'm going to see the Mayweather-Mosley fight later this week at a local movie theater.  "Aw, man, I have to be up at the military school with my son that day.  I'm going to have to find a bar nearby to watch it," Alan said.  It ought to be a good match, depending on all the trash talking that's been going on.  The best was when Mosley and Oscar de la Hoya were on George Lopez's talk show.  Mosley said he was going to knock Mayweather out.  Lopez gave the two men a pair of blue Everlast boxing shoes to deliver to Mayweather.  On the bottom soles of the shoes was the "Lopez Tonight" logo.  "When Mayweather is laid out, I can get some promotion for my show," Lopez grinned.

Besides being on HBO's "24/7" (where he made the outrageous claim of being a better pugalist than Ali or Sugar Ray Robinson), Mayweather has also been seen on "What Chili Wants", a reality show on VHI.  Mayweather has been friends with Chili, who is part of the girl group TLC, for years.  The show focuses on Chili trying to find love with the help of a matchmaker.  Mayweather acts like he likes her, and Chili is willing to see if their friendship can turn into a relationship.  In the episode I saw last night, Mayweather stood Chili up for a dinner date.  Not cool. 

Slugfest Snorefest

"That fight was garbage," Manny said to me when I ran into him outside of the Howard 'L station.  I had to agree that the Mayweather vs. Marquez fight was a washout.  Now I wish I hadn't paid to see it on pay-per-view. 

You know it was a bad night when two of the undercard fights were better than the main event.  Cornelius Lock knocked out Orlando Cruz and Michael Katsidis had some good moments over Vincente Escobedo.  I expected better out of Rocky Juarez during his match with Chris John.  John just danced around Juarez, and hit him at will.  But then, I didn't mind, because I thought the Mayweather/Marquez fight would be exciting.

"What is Marquez doing?" I kept thinking to myself as I munched on pizza (it was a special event, so I figured I turn in the twenty coupons I had to get a free pizza from JB Alberto's).  The man hesitated to throw punches the entire night, and when he did, there were few combinations given out.  Oh, he caught Mayweather in the head a few times, but "Money" just smirked at and out-slicked him.  Mayweather can be beaten, and he probably will one day if he doesn't retire again.  Marquez wasn't the man to do that, however.  His game plan, whatever it was, did not work against his undefeated opponent.

The most exciting part of the broadcast came after the fight when "Sugar" Shane Mosley told Mayweather that he wanted to get a fight with him.  Mosley and Mayweather seemed to be respectful of each other at first, then they got into an argument.  Announcer Max Kellerman was in the middle, trying to bring order.  Mayweather snapped that Mosley disrespected him by interrupting his interview with Kellerman, but it looked like Mayweather had told Mosley to come over in the beginning.  Kellerman tried to get a question in about fighting Manny Pacquiao, then Mayweather turned on the announcer like a Doberman.  "You talk too much", Mayweather snapped, and Kellerman looked taken aback.  As animated as Kellerman used to be during the boxing broadcasts on ESPN, I was surprised he didn't snap back on Mayweather.  Kellerman seemed a bit subdued during all of the fights that night.

Today is the beginning of the Fall session for the Chicago Park District, and as usual, I'm curious to see the new faces who'll show up at the gym tonight. 

Birthday Fight

Yesterday was my birthday, and I made plans to see the Mayweather/Hatton fight. Mike told me while we were in the gym Friday night that he was going to pop for the pay-per-view. He invited several people over including Steve and JJ.

Ricky Hatton, a tough guy from England, had Floyd Mayweather Jr. going for the first five rounds. Hatton was constantly moving around, and he popped Mayweather good several times. Unfortunately, Hatton stopped moving his head during the sixth round. Then, from that round on, Mayweather figured out his style and started timing him. Not long into the 10th round, Mayweather put a combination together and knocked Hatton down. Hatton got up as referee Joe Cortez ("I'm fair but I'm firm!") reached the count of eight. Mayweather caught Hatton again with another set of punches, and Hatton couldn't get up as easily. Cortez stopped the fight, Hatton's corner through the towel in, and Mayweather remained undefeated.

I was hoping that Hatton would win, just to bring cocky Mayweather down a notch. Hatton had been undefeated too, up until last night. The British fans were in force last night. They even had a guy with a drum and a few guys with trumpets playing in the audience. Ol' fine Tom Jones sang the UK's national anthem, and Tyrese sang the American national anthem; celebrities like Brad Pitt and Will Ferrell were in the audience. The Golden Boy Promotions executives -- Oscar De LaHoya, Bernard Hopkins, and "Sugar" Shane Mosley -- were in attendance, along with old school boxer Thomas "The Hit Man" Hearns. It was an exciting fight.

JJ did lose his fight at Brooks this past Friday night.

Jordan's friend, the recovering addict, came in Friday night, but wasn't able to work out like he wanted. Steve checked his receipt for the gym fee, and discovered the guy had signed up for the winter session, which doesn't begin until January.

Carla, who used to come to the gym, is getting married next month in a civil ceremony. She'll have a bigger ceremony in Hawaii in February. She was talking about coming back to the gym. The main reason she stopped going was because she moved farther away.

Boxing Vs. MMA and Coaching

I went to Mike's condo on Saturday night to watch a match between Sugar Shane Mosley and Luis Collazo. Two of Mike's buddies, Nate and Bill were there; none of the guys from the gym came by. We watched several MMA matches including the inagural ones that Showtime aired. Bill commented as we watched the Mosley-Collazo match that it was sort of a come down after the excitement of the MMA bouts.

Well, yes and no, in my opinion. MMA fighters generate a lot of heat with their kicks, takedowns and grappling, but boxing has the better bang for its buck. MMA bouts have longer rounds of five minutes, and only three or four rounds are done. Everything can be over by a submission or knockout in the first round. A fighter can be knocked down and out in the first seconds of the first round in boxing, too, but it doesn't happen all the time. MMA fans get cheated out of good fights a lot, while boxing fans get their money's worth when two great fighters go the distance. It seems that fighters have to be just about dead before referees will stop a match in MMA. Refs and coaches appear to look out more for their fighters in order to keep real damage from being done.

For example. . .Frank Shamrock jammed his opponent, one of the famous Gracie family, in the back of the head twice with his knee before the referee stepped in. Gracie had a concussion and couldn't go on. The fight was aborted unnecessarily, and after a big build up, fans were left hanging. The best MMA bout of the night took place between two women, the first MMA match with females that had been aired on TV. Those women were tough; that could have gone on more than three rounds.

Steve told me Friday night that there was a coach's clinic in Harvey, IL the following morning. If I had known about it earlier in the week, I would not have scheduled a church gospel concert rehearsal Saturday. I'll have to ask him how he finds out about the clinics, so I can put the next one in my calendar.